Monuments and Other Things that Change
Monuments and Other Things that Change, 2012-2015, HD video, color, b&w, sound, 72 min
Screenings
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, 2018.
Lenin Lives: Van Every/Smith Galleries, Davidson College, NC, 2017.
Making Space: Visual Anthropology Conference, Temple University, 2015.
Story of a Story: Smack Melon, NYC, 2015.
Anonymous, Untitled, ca. 1970, Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic
Courtesy of the Kyrgyz National Archives, Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic
The film departs from a found, untitled, uncredited image of a Lenin monument in the Kyrgyz Republic’s capital Bishkek. Drawing on original, literary, and found texts, I gave this photograph four different titles and possible stories. These readings infused the photograph with narratives of displacement, longing, homemaking, and homecoming. The film evolved over three years, shaped by Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea and falling Lenin monuments all over Ukraine in 2013.
Film was supported in part by the following organizations and grants:
IIE Fulbright Fellowship in Filmmaking, 2012-2013.
Film-Making grant, Association for Central Asian Civilizations & Silk Road Studies, 2013.
Research Fellowship, Central Asian Studies Institute, American University of Central Asia, Kyrgyz Republic, 2013.